Gratitude
by nanjarohoihoi
Summary: B-Squad shows Sky their gratitude.


This was written for Starhawk's Puppy Pile Matching Meme.

**Gratitude **

"Jack!" Z called. "You have to see this!"

Jack looked over the top of his comic book. Z stood in his doorway dressed in her yellow flannel pajamas. "See what?" he asked.

She stepped into the room. Maneuvering around the clothing on his floor, she grabbed his arm and practically dragged him off the bed. "Trust me," she told him with a grin. "Come on!"

She released his arm in the hallway and he followed her obediently. They turned into another corridor and Jack almost walked straight into a pajama-clad Bridge and another Z. Jack looked to his Z to find she was gone. The Z with Bridge took over her role and led them both down the hall.

Jack cast a sideways glance at Bridge hoping he'd have an idea of what was going on, but Jack guessed that Z had just woken him by the way Bridge yawned and rubbed at his eyes. Jack hoped that whatever Z wanted to show them wasn't something that could've waited until morning since they had all had a long, hard day.

Z saw them to the door of their break room. Syd stood outside it, also in pajamas, her hair tied up in curlers and Peanuts tucked in-between her crossed arms. She caught his eye and shrugged. "I don't know either," she admitted.

He noticed that Z had disappeared and was going to comment when the door opened from the inside and Z stepped out. She held her index finger to her lips in a shushing motion, and then gestured them into the room.

Sky was slumped in the center of the couch fast asleep. His head lay against its backrest, and the rigidness ever-present in his posture was absent. His well-read copy of the SPD Handbook lay open on his lap. He looked vulnerable.

It was a rare sight.

Bridge bent down in front of him and waved his gloved hands in front of Sky's face. "Yep," he confirmed. "He's asleep."

That fact that Sky didn't react to Bridge's "indoor voice" was testimony to how tired Sky was. Sky had been awake for the past forty-eight hours frantically trying to save them from the clutches of one of Broodwing's goons. Jack glanced around the room. The four of them were gathered around Sky and from the expressions on their faces he knew that they were all thinking the same thing: Sky deserved his rest.

Jack considered suggesting they wake Sky and help him to bed, but Z spoke first. In her affectionately mocking tone she asked, "Anyone have any ideas on how we can pester him while he sleeps?"

Bridge's hand shot up. "Oh, I do! We could get a marker. Well, not a permanent marker, but maybe a washable marker. And we could use it to draw--"

Syd cut him off. "Pester him, Bridge. Not piss him off. I plan to live until the end of the week."

It was then that Jack got a brilliant idea.

He couldn't help but grin mischievously as he wordlessly dropped to Sky's level and curled up on the couch next to him. He made himself comfortable before carefully easing Sky's head onto his shoulder.

Z shot him a curious glance, but to his surprise, it was Syd who put two and two together first. She snuggled against Sky's other side, resting her head against his upper arm and holding Peanuts to her chest.

Bridge fit himself into the space between Syd and the end of the couch. He threw an arm over her and buried his smiling face into her side.

Z was last and when she nestled against him, Jack shifted until she was comfortable, her head pillowed in his lap. She looked up at him as she pointed out, "You know, he's going to kill us when he wakes up."

Jack laughed and let his head rest against the back of the couch. He didn't doubt that Sky would be more than a little annoyed with them in the morning, and that his crazy idea would probably result in them facing Sky's wrath for the better part of the next two weeks. He almost felt guilty when he considered what Sky had gone through to save them. However, he also knew that by curling up on the couch around Sky, they were telling Sky something he would never let them say to his face.

When Jack woke in the middle of the night, he felt Sky's arms wrap around his midsection and knew that although Sky would never admit it, it was his way of saying, "You're welcome".


End file.
